I have a Remington 870 Express Magnum 12 guage I purchased at Wal-Mart last week... I am looking to buy a stock with rear grip of some kind as well as an extra barrel for it. It has a 26'' VR with Remington Modified choke. I'm wanting to get a 20'' barrel for it, preferably fully rifled I suppose... Now, are there any suggestions as to what kind of stock/grip I should get as well as the barrel because I'm not exactly sure myself. Please reply with your opinion!, thanks...

Hey, welcome with post #4 I see!

I guess, if you are going to build a shotgun, the question you have to ask yourself is do I feel lucky what do you want iuse it for?  Well???

Well, I bought it with the 26'' VR so I can use it for pheasant/quail, but was wanting a 20'' so I could put some slugs through it. I do however like the look of the tactical shotgun. I suppose I'm leaning more towards the tactical side than hunting since I don't hunt as much as I'd like to.

Stock - Choate pistol grip.

Extension - Choate unless you want a 2 shot and then either Vang or Scattergun Tech.

Barrel - As suggested smooth with rifle sights or an 18" plain, and install Scattergun Tech Ghost ring sight and epoxy on the front.

Follower - Vang all the way.

Safety - If you are going to use it for hunting, use the Scattergun Tech Large head, if not use  the Vand Dome head.

These are what I use when I build competition combat shotguns.

BHP9

"Do not buy a fully rifled barrel unless you plan to use sabot slugs for hunting deer. A 20" smooth bore barrel choked improved cylinder with rifle sights would be a good compromise for both a deer barrel with standard slugs and a defense barrel with buckshot. MIKE."


Truer words were never spoken, Mike... I really like the idea of a smoothy slug barrel with screw-in chokes, but haven't gotten one, yet...


  - georgestrings

winchester has one called the camp defender.  Nice looking gun.  I think it's a 20" with rifle sights, smooth bore and screw in choke.  You can get a rifled choke I think but man those sabot's are expensive!!!!!!!!  Most of them are almost $2 a shot.  At least over $1.      I think that'd be just about the perfect shotgun though.  At least for me.  

Quoted: Do not buy a fully rifled barrel unless you plan to use sabot slugs for hunting deer. A 20" smooth bore barrel choked improved cylinder with rifle sights would be a good compromise for both a deer barrel with standard slugs and a defense barrel with buckshot. MIKE.

I found a 20'' barrel with Remington choke and rifled sights on cheaperthandirt.com for $165... I could switch the choke out and put an improved cylinder in it...How does that sound price wise?... Could I possibly get one cheaper...

Quoted: winchester has one called the camp defender.  Nice looking gun.  I think it's a 20" with rifle sights, smooth bore and screw in choke.  You can get a rifled choke I think but man those sabot's are expensive!!!!!!!!  Most of them are almost $2 a shot.  At least over $1.      I think that'd be just about the perfect shotgun though.  At least for me.

I have one, i like it.  seems like a good all around gun to me. ive even shot skeet with it, but the over-under crowd didnt like me much...

Ben, the_Emu

Hi Mike... Yes, it is an 870 barrel. Here is the link if you are interested.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ctd/product.asp?dept%5Fid=120107&sku=94545&imgid=&mscssid=ULRT94LAX38U9G0H7J74TXA6N9D5D2MD

Mike - Yeah, that sounds like a sweet barrel set-up, but I already have a nice slug barrel for my 1100 - it has rifle sights, and isn't "choked" - but is plenty thick enough to add choke tubes should I decide to go that route... I like your idea of low powered optics for turkeys, and know several repected turkey hunters that use 'em - however, I'm not much of a fan of the cantilever scope mounting set-up: one of my good friends does warranty work for Remington, and I've seen my share of cantilevers that've come off in his shop for warranty work... Nice idea, but not that great in real life, IMO... If you're serious about turkey hunting(like I am), and have the shotguns to spare, I'd dedicate one of them to hunting, and have the receiver drilled and tapped for a scope mount... I did that with my deer gun, and it has worked out VERY well - it's got a fully rifled barrel(pinned) equipped with Firesights, and the receiver has a Leupold QR base for a 7600 mounted on it - with a VariX II 2-7x33 Shotgun scope in QR rings, this rig spells whitetail death... The scope has been R&R'd many times, and has returned to zero reliably...

My turkey rig consists of a camo'd 870 Wingmaster Magnum, with a 26" VR barrel, super full turkey choke, and Firesights on the rib(I aim it like a rifle) - it's worked out pretty well, although I AM considering shortening the barrel a bit... Maybe if I stumbled upon a 28 to 30" VR barrel with screw-in chokes for a good price, I'd shorten that turkey barrel to around 23-24" - at 26", it's pretty versatile, and I'm not willing to give up that versatility until I have another barrel to go along with it...


  - georgestrings

Phew!, I planned on ordering the other barrel from cheaperthandirt, but decided to come back here and do a bit more reading first. Luckily you stopped me! I'll be ordering the one from Cabelas now!, thanks...

Hi, Mike - Yeah, I've got my NY shotgunning needs covered - not to mention my 1100, which I haven't killed anything with, yet(bought it for trap, mostly) - we're going to see if we can change that this season... I picked up a clean smoothy slug barrel for it this past summer, and it shoots SuperXs pretty well - so I think I'll take it out still hunting a couple of times this year, and see if I can sneak up on anything... Besides those, I had an 870 Police until recently - I got a chance to trade it for an HRA M1 Garand in decent condition - so I went for it!!! Hated to turn loose of that 870, though - it WAS a nice one... Best of luck this year, bud...


  - georgestrings